Interdisciplinary
A. Zarei Dehbaghi; S. Zarghami Hamrah; Y. Ghaedi; Kh. Bagheri Noaparast
Abstract
The aim of this description-inductive study, is to draw forth implications for the purposes of scholarship in the social science based on critical realism with an emphasis on interdisciplinary studies. Critical realism, from an epistemological insight, is seen as the basis for scholarship references ...
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The aim of this description-inductive study, is to draw forth implications for the purposes of scholarship in the social science based on critical realism with an emphasis on interdisciplinary studies. Critical realism, from an epistemological insight, is seen as the basis for scholarship references (teaching, research, application and integration) in social science. The results of this research indicate that critical realism, with its emphasis on mind-independent reality and the nature of the criticism of knowledge, focuses on an emancipator training in social science. In research, critical realism stresses philosophy and philosophical self-awareness. Therefore, social science researchers understand the hidden assumptions and outright lies in their own research better. In the field of integration, the emphasis is on understanding the reality on a large scale. Therefore, it recognizes the interdisciplinary science of knowledge and welcomes every science that can better explain and interpret the complex layers of reality. Thus, critical realism, in practice, has the potential to solve social problems thru its perspective on the science of integration. The reason for this is theorizing far from narrow-mindedness while, at the same time, in harmony with the critical realism. This is due to its critical nature which brings knowledge closer to practice.
Interdisciplinary
N. Taghavian
Abstract
Is identity a heritage inherited from the past or a choice for the future? In this question, the concept of ‘time’ is presupposed. Thus, my point of departure is analyzing the concept of time. Then the relation between the concept of time and social theory will be examined to maintain ...
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Is identity a heritage inherited from the past or a choice for the future? In this question, the concept of ‘time’ is presupposed. Thus, my point of departure is analyzing the concept of time. Then the relation between the concept of time and social theory will be examined to maintain that ‘sociology’ is the science of ‘space’ rather than the science of ‘time. ‘History’, however, is the science of ‘time’ which, in its Hegelian version, has a strong connection with the paradigm of the ‘philosophy of consciousnesses’. This paradigm would not allow sociology to be established, because sociology is the theory of action rather than the theory of consciousness. For this very reason, the establishment of sociology in the late nineteenth century was contemporaneous with the crisis of the philosophy of consciousness. The focal point of this crisis was the concept of ‘subject’, which itself was both the base of modern philosophy and the focus of modern society. But Marx, Nietzsche, Freud and Romanticist Movement radically criticized the concept of ‘subject’ and thus brought about crisis for modern society. The establishment of sociology was a response to such a crisis. It was a turning point by which we became aware of the heaviness and harmfulness of ‘tempocentrism’ and instead point to the usefulness of ‘topocentrism’. After this theoretical discussion, some problems of tempocentristic approach to ‘identity’ in Iranian social science will be referred to show how this approach is laden with the past, and therefore, unable to regard the future. The Iranian social science’s inability to develop an ‘action theory’ seems to be rooted in its tempocentrism. In order to find a way out of this dead-end and open some new horizons in the sphere of theory and practice, the Iranian sociology need to throw down the approach to identity ‘as a heritage from the past’ and adopt it ‘as a choice for the future’. Finally, I will discuss ‘rational identity’ and its relation to social science.
Philosophy of Educations
P. Najarian
Abstract
Complexity theory is a new theory originally introduced in natural sciences; however, recently it has been widely used in social sciences, and has been of great interest to educators in the last two decades. Since complexity theory is yet fairly unknown in the majority of fields of science in Iran, especially ...
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Complexity theory is a new theory originally introduced in natural sciences; however, recently it has been widely used in social sciences, and has been of great interest to educators in the last two decades. Since complexity theory is yet fairly unknown in the majority of fields of science in Iran, especially in education and curriculum development, it is necessary to describe its concepts and implications. The objective of this paper is to determine how the complexity theory and its implications can provide solutions for the current curriculum problems. This work presents a basic research approach, in which two philosophical research methods of “conceptual analysis: conceptual structure assessment” and “deductive method: practical syllogism” have been used. The results of this paper show that the application of philosophical features of the complexity theory can enable us to improve the current curriculums. Some of the implications of the complexity theory are: paying particular attention to the complex aspects of learners and their interactions with the universe; developing general mental abilities, applying trans-disciplinary approaches and problem-based curriculums, promoting contextualized knowledge and selecting educational resources and materials related to ecological problems; replacing distributed, participatory and negotiating knowledge with controlled-based and hierarchy-based one; promoting lifetime learning and distance learning, emphasizing learning through feedback, connection and network interaction by applying the new complex network-based technologies, and being prepared for continuous changes in unpredictable situations.
